Monthly Archives: August 2013

We had a looong day drive to get back to San Miguel but got back OK with no problem. Being a day late, we turned up at Mats shop on Tuesday morning to start the body work on Burt. There was no problem with our delay. Mats introduced John to two of his fine mechanics and the two with John’s guidance begun the work. They predicted a the work to last for the week.

Hammarlund RacingSM AllendeJuly 2013

Hammarlund RacingSM AllendeJuly 2013

We had a place to stay right in the centre of town.
Chris and his kids, who we met last time we were here, offered us to stay at his rented house for a friendly price. He was here on holiday with his delightful kids. Lola 6 and Hugo 1. Unfortunately Chris’ wife could come for the whole length of the vacation due to work so it was just dad and the 2 herberts. They stayed in a great town-house in the centre of the city, walking distance to everything. We got the lovely ensuite bedroom for the week.

Johnny was working all week and I got to hang out with Chris, Lola and Hugo. It was good fun. Plus, Dan (from the Gathering) arrived one day so met him a few times. He found himself around town quite quickly and made mates in no time. In the meantime John and Mats bonded so we kept meeting up with Mats and Eva -his wife almost every evening. They were great fun. Showed us some cool places and invited us to their fantastic home once for dinner and to meet some of their friends. It was an exceptionally great night and a great week!

Last working day was Saturday when it seemed John and the boys fixed one of the biggest problems we had on Burt. Johnny had a day-off on Sunday when we had the last family-day with Chris and children. On Monday we tested Burt which seems fine and John was keen to move on the following day. We had our last night with Mats and Eva with simple Italian and the finest Tequila I’ve ever tasted. Another great night and sad 🙁 goodbyes.

Tuesday morning before we left, we pulled up at Mats shop to settle the bill and take a photo with all. They have been absolutely brilliant to us, we made friends again and hope to see Mats and Eva again…

So it took us a couple of days to get where we came from a few weeks ago. All we knew was the name of this Gathering, Raices de la Tierra and the approximate location but we aimed to get there a day ahead, also to see if we can give them a hand to set up things. We actually found the place with no problem.

The Gathering was located on a small farm outside of a town in a quiet and peaceful environment. We arrived the afternoon before it officially started but people were arriving already. There was a small area for parking cars -everyone had tents, but it was fine for us to park up in the parking lot. The people were arriving to the event were from all over Mexico and seemed to know their way around and each other. Only a couple of guys we met spoke English so I had to sharpen my Spanish (all the 5 words). There was no sign of Paul and Ana. That afternoon nothing much happened and by that evening John and I felt a little “lost” partly because of the nature of the event, and partly because of the language. We took an early night and see what happens tomorrow…

The following morning was the Opening Day which started at 5.30 AM with drums to gather people to the tamascal (sweat lodges). We’re not really morning people so we gave that a miss. By the time we got up eventually, we noticed that our friends, Paul and Ana arrived sometime in the night. It was great to see them. In the next couple of days we met a Canadian, free-spirit guy, Dan in the crowd and with him we completed the 5 members non-Mexican club. They spoke better Spanish so John and I started understanding a little more about the ceremonies and the event. It was roasting hot and they said it hasn’t been raining in this area for months -which causing a lot of problems for the farmers. And we felt this dry heat, day and night.
There were about 7-8 tribes represented by their elders. They held their ceremonies and gave speech every morning and evening and some in-between. The tribes were from all around Mexico but there were Elders from North America and Colombia. John and I were most fascinated by the Elders of a tribe called the Huichol or (as they are actually called) Wixáritari. Their ceremony, music and songs were wonderfully weird and mesmerising. They “represented” the rain. As this Gathering was about healing Mother Earth and Humanity each Elders’ ceremony had its place and function (wind, sun, animals etc)

Each year, since this Gathering was happening, the Wixáritaris did their most powerful ceremony which involved animal sacrifice. This caused some controversy within the crowd so in the past couple of years they didn’t do it but this year they found a way around it. As the Elders felt it was very important to do their main ceremony in the traditional way they decided to do it away from the Gathering, in the mountains and it was optional for anyone who wanted to witness their ritual to come along.
Of course we did want to go along. Dan was happy to drive all five of us (Ana, Paul John and me) to the mountains where the ceremony was held. When everyone was there and took their places they begun their strange violin music and songs in their language. Other elders joined in too. Then a calf was lead into the middle of the circle. When I saw the calf first, I felt my heart stopped. Then it was out of my sight. The atmosphere was very strong. The elders did their job in such skilful way that we didn’t noticed when the sacrifice actually happened. By the music started again it was over and the animal was taken out of the circle almost un-noticeably. At the end of the ceremony everyone was welcome to approach the rock and put down their offerings (mostly chocolate and water). Just as the whole ceremony was approaching to the end, out of the blue a black, small cloud gathered right above us and it poured a thick rainfall on us for about 10 minutes. (for the first time in months) This could be one of those coincidences but being there, feeling the atmosphere it seemed something else to me…

The following day involved the spectacular Feather Dance and in the evening the Bear Dance, this was held by the members of the Bear tribe. Both were absolutely fantastic experiences.

Feather DanceZacatecasAugust 2013

Feather DanceZacatecasAugust 2013

Feather DanceZacatecasAugust 2013

Feather DanceZacatecasAugust 2013

Feather DanceZacatecasAugust 2013

Feather DanceZacatecasAugust 2013

The last day morning had the Closing ceremony. It was a particularly sizzling hot day with no air moving and very dry. Again, each Elders did their jobs which left me and John quite stunned.

It started with the Elder and his family who represented the Wind, singing and dancing around. Then a Sun Angel appeared around the sun on the perfectly clear blue sky. It was a sharp and beautiful rainbow, I’ve never seen before.

Then it was the Bear tribe’s turn. They had a magnificent hawk with them. During their ceremony 16 hawks appeared and circled above our heads then disappeared when they finished their dance.

The last ceremony was the Wixáritari‘s dance and music. As always, John and I were mesmerised. They were singing and dancing endlessly. In the distance we saw huge dark, thunder clouds gathering that reached us within half an hour and created an astonishing thunder. It was quite unbelievable.

The Closing ceremony lasted for hours and hours that we didn’t noticed. Most of the people have left by then and those few left were packing up. So the place had this ” ending” atmosphere. It was about 4PM and we started packing too. We needed to get back to San Miguel (around 500 km). We needed to start the work on Burt tomorrow morning. Although it was late and I felt it would be silly to leave now but John was keen to leave. So we were hesitating. Ana, Paul and Dan decided to stay for one more night. As we were trying to make our minds up I saw one of the Elders of the Wixáritari waving at me and John. They were packing as well.

Wixáritari ElderZacatecasAugust 2013

I grabbed John’s hand and walked up to him. With my polished-up Spanish I begun to thank him for the ceremony, blah-blah…. “It’s OK” he said, ” I speak English” (!!!) We were stunned. We had a nice conversation and at the end we were invited to his house. Balam (the Elder -who is 28 years old!) offered us to park up at his house and stay for the night. “you can have a shower, dinner and we talk more” He said. It was an amazing offer. How many times One get invited to a Medicine man’s house…? At that point Ana, Paul and Dan gathered around us so they were welcome too.

Everyone packed up and within an hour we were all sitting in Balam’s living room. He has 4 children and a wife who’s expecting their 5th. The house was a mayhem with all the children running and shouting, wanting our attention meantime Balam was telling us stories. We learnt that Balam isn’t Wixáritari, he’s Spanish Mexican, yet he is the apprentice of Alfonso who is the Medicine man of the Wixáritari‘. Alfonso was there too. He speaks Wixárika and Spanish so I needed Ana to interpret between us. Alfonso was smiley and quiet and told us how much he admires Balam and that he is a great hunter and he will be a great Medicine man. He stayed at Balam’s house for the night before returning to his remote ranch in the mountains the following day. He invited all of us to his ranch and said we could stay there as long as we wanted. Another wonderful offer.

That night we ordered a couple of family size pizzas and listened to Balam who was telling us his story of becoming one of the Wixáritaris, about his family and the tribe’s history. It was around 2AM when we split up and everyone went to bed.
The following morning Johnny and I were hanging out for a few hours visiting the town, do some shopping then discussing what to do. Alfonso’s offer was, again, a rare opportunity for us to be somewhere special and remote (which we love) but we also felt the pressure of being in San Miguel where we made an appointment for Burt’s fixing with Mats. We postponed the work once already and we were supposed to be there this morning. We felt we need to fulfil our commitment so decided to leave at midday.

We said our goodbyes to Balam and his family and Alfonso. Ana and Paul decided to stay in the nearby mountains and Dan choose to come to San Miguel but check out Zacatecas city first. So we’ll be meeting him later. We are hoping to see Ana and Paul again somewhere sometime. They have been great fun and such wonderful guides for us at the Gathering.

San Miguel de Allende. Could be a hit and miss place. Some come here for a holiday and never leave, some thinks the place is far too westernized and expensive. (I have to mention it here, John didn’t really wanted to come here. He knew it wouldn’t do it for him, and he’s not much of a “town person”) But one for sure, Allende is a very attractive town with well preserved cobblestone streets, beautiful colonial buildings, churches, gardens, super cute boutiques, cafes, posh restaurants and very friendly expats.

SM AllendeJuly 2013

SM AllendeJuly 2013

SM AllendeJuly 2013

SM AllendeJuly 2013

SM AllendeJuly 2013

For us it was a “hit” as soon as we arrived but not in the good way. On our arrival we managed to knock a crack on a wall opposite the super tight entrance of the RV park we meant to stay in. In Allende the streets are narrow and can be steep too and this street, in particular, was one of them. Luckily the wall wasn’t a structure wall (so there was no house collapsing or anything but it was enough to make my heart stop for a minute) The wall was an old, already falling down, part-of-a-fence, single brick wall but still, we damaged it. Straight away, we managed to get hold of the young couple who owns the property but live elsewhere (currently this one is empty as it’s falling apart) After 5 hours negotiation with them, an “architect” and a policeman we settled at an amount that was closer to fair than the amount they wanted from us in the first place (which would have been enough to build a smaller house in Mexico!) It was well after 9 PM when we finally agreed and made the necessary admin. We went to bed without dinner, feeling tired and quite deflated.

In the RV park we met two delightful couples. Both camped up here in their overland rolling homes. One couple was from Germany and arrived in SM Allende 4 years ago!! They loved it so much, they never left to continue their travel further. Now, they have their life here with friends and all. And another fun couple from Switzerland, Franzeska and Felix, who are on the road for 4 years, travelling from Argentina and heading to Alaska, Canada or wherever the wind blows them. They have been staying here for quite a few weeks too. This town and its conveniently placed RV park seemed like a good base for longer rest for busy travelers.

SM Allende campsiteJuly 2013

With our new neighbors’ help, John and especially I quickly found our way around town. Which was lovely. Soon I was there at the handy-crafty-arty-pretty organic market every Saturday, strolled to the more authentic fruit and veg market on Tuesdays, having frappuccino at Starbucks in the mornings, stuff myself with delicious sugary cakes and generally living in LA LA LAND.

Craft marketSM AllendeJuly 2013

Ice creamSM AllendeJuly 2013

More marketSM AllendeJuly 2013

SM AllendeJuly 2013

Enjoying music at the Saturday marketSM AllendeJuly 2013

Meanwhile John…. well, we needed a job done on Burt (that bothered Johnny for quite some time) and Joachim – our German neighbor recommended a few places to check. One of these places was Hammarlund Racing. A Swedish owned company that builds vintage race cars for very wealthy people all around the world. We thought “hm, yes let’s just try the average, non-millionaire workshops first” Even if this Swedish guy would talk to us, he’d be way too busy for our job or we couldn’t afford it. So John started visited the local guys. Day after day it was becoming clearer and clearer that neither these workshops were interested, capable or quite frankly, reliable.

Days, then a week, then two weeks went by in wonderful Allende. During these couple of weeks we got ourselves into some very odd state. While still looking for the workshop for Burt (or waiting for some Mexican mechanics’ appointment over and over again who never shows up), somehow we managed to go out every night and drink ourselves to the ground. We didn’t know how it happened, EVERY single night but it just did. Obviously feeling awful the following day and not just physically, we were wasting our budget (Allende ain’t cheap) and not progressing with Burt so because we felt down again, we couldn’t wait till beer o’clock to get to Hank’s by happy hour.

SM AllendeJuly 2013

Although there was a jolly good side of being a couple of old lushes in Allende. Within just a couple of days (ahem, nights) we made tons of friends. Soon we were group emailing about the next do, rushing to meet friends for coffees, lunches or further drinks or dinners. We were invited to guitar evenings, private dinner parties or a family day-out to the pools, or some days Burt was heaving of people coming over for dinners, morning coffees or just to hang out for the day. It was utter mad fun with a touch of guilt.

SM AllendeJuly 2013

SM AllendeJuly 2013

Sometime in these weeks, John finally decided to get in touch with the Hammarlund company. Turned out, they were more than happy to meet us with Burt and take a look at the problem in question. Seemed promising… One Friday we rolled up at the shop for the appointment where Mats -the owner of the business greeted us. Turned out, Mats and his wife, some time ago were world travelers so he understand where we were coming from -having a problem on the road and finding people to work on it etc, plus he seemed very impressed that John built our vehicle. After he showed us around in the tidiest and most organised shop we’ve ever seen with gorgeous vintage cars lining up neatly, Mats and John looked at and discussed the problem then we were booked in for the following Monday.

Hammarlund RacingSM AllendeJuly 2013

Hammarlund RacingSM AllendeJuly 2013

As we were driving away from Mats’ shop, John and I felt such a relief, we were really happy to found a so professionally run workshop with a great guy who’s happy to take us on. So happiness all around.

We got back to our RV park -no wall breaking this time. Yay! Though we managed to scrape some paint off on the right side. Damn! For our delight we found new neighbors in the campsite. A couple travelling for 4 years from Argentina throughout South and Central America. A delightful Swiss husband, Paul and his beautiful Inca wife, Ana from Argentina. They were a fascinating pair with amazing life stories that we could listen to for hours. They happened to mention that there will be a small, quite intimate Native Gathering in the next few days, up north, in Zacatecas…

After hours, maybe even a day of discussion we decided to go to the Gathering. Of course, there was our golden-found workshop with Mats where we now were booked in, plus this Gathering was 500 km back up north in Zacatecas, where we’ve already been. Still somehow I felt “we’ve got to go”. Monday morning we turned up at Mats’ workshop, to see if we can jiggle time and postpone the job. No problem. Great! Off we went…

Copper Canyon. The wonderful, dramatic place with deep canyons, huge mountains, waterfalls, hot springs, within 50-60 kms complete climate change and yet totally abandoned by international (especially US and Canadian) tourist. Sadly this area of Mexico (if not the whole country) has a negative propaganda and that scared the tourists away, since 2007ish. As I mentioned in my earlier story, I had my doubts too but having spent over a month in and around the Copper Canyon changed my feelings towards this beautiful place.

We were making very little progress for several reasons; me ill first so had to stay in Creel for about 10 days, then such challenging winding, steep and narrow roads that some days, after driving 7-8 hours we actually made only 40km progress, then just enjoying an area so decided to stay more nights, then John’s got ill (same bug) and then enjoyed time at other places with loving and fun hosts we had to stay longer than we planned.

The temperature was wonderful up there. Just as we like it; 18-22C (64-72F) compare to the near 50C (122F) on sea level. (We’re a little obsessed with temperature -it seems to drive us on the travel) It is also the rainy season so everything is green and lush.

We started our “ring tour” around the huge canyon in Creel (that’s where I got ill so stayed longer than we wanted) But we discovered the beautiful country and nature in the surrounding area where the shy Tarahumara Indians live in small communities or just on their own as a family. They work on the fields, keep cows and horses and still wear the traditional super colourful clothing. Creel is right north of the canyon at over 2000m elevation. This was probably the busiest town around the canyon where tourists (used to) park themselves up in a cozy Alpine-style hotel and do day trips in to the nature, hiking, biking, climbing, fishing, swimming and so on. Although we felt a little alone as there were no tourists at all. We came across Ivan who runs a adventure shop. Used to be very busy, renting out bikes and motorbikes, planning day trips to hikers and so on. Ivan is a world-travelled, open minded guy who has a real passion and humble love for “his” canyon and its area. We loved popping in and get lost in talking with him for hours. He told us about how businesses here and around the area that depended on tourism went bust, shut down or slowed down dramatically. The Mexican government in 2008 invested a lot in to promoting the Copper Canyon for Mexicans. As Ivan put it “and the Mexicans came to the rescue!” so by now if there are tourists here, they are most likely from bigger cities and Mexico City. Eventually (once I felt better) we rented a couple of mountain bikes (pretty top quality ones) from Ivan and had an amazing day trip around the area.

Then we moved on towards the heart of the canyon. We decided to tour around the canyon anti-clockwise so after Creel our next destination was Divisadero and the Parque de Adventuras Barrancas del Cobre. They built an adventure park where there are 7 ziplines, a gondola couple of foot bridges over the canyon and hundreds of tracks for hiking and with a huge and modern visitor centre. We spent a day “adventuring” -ziplining and hiking which was reasonable fun (then hiked down right to the bottom of the canyon to a small indigenous village) but again, apart from a handful of Mexican tourists, we felt completely alone. Very odd. Imagine the Grand Canyon at its peak visitor time but with only 15-20 tourists… We found one posh-ish hotel built on the edge of the cliff with spectacular view, where all those few tourists stayed in fairly luxurious circumstances. This hotel had “happy hours” which didn’t turned out very happy for us. The “certain type” of beer that John ordered and a most average Mexican white wine I ordered (2 each) turned out not to be in the happy hour range (just forgot to tell us) so we had the most expensive couple of ordinary drinks in history. I think the fact that we were a couple of Gringos (which isn’t even true!) pushes prices upwards wherever we go. This is apparently one of the challenges yet to come and something we just have to learn deal with… Ah well. For consolation we were able to park up overnight right on the edge of the canyon and that was free.

Campsite at the canyon.Copper CanyonJune 2013

Then a few days drive on unforgiving roads stopping for the night wherever we felt safe and ended up in La Bufa (even our crappy map marked it as a village -our map doesn’t really mark places only if they are big enough) but La Bufa had 4 houses -one is a shop and yet, it made it on the road atlas! La Bufa is in rural area and in a deep valley with only indigenous people living there and further up in the hill. Though the little shop is owned by a wonderfully eccentric American lady, Sherry (Ivan, in Creel, mentioned her so we sort of knew about here but as it happened so many times before, after someone recommending anything for us to visit, we find places shut down, closed, not-existing, people moved on etc. So we didn’t hold our breath) After over 8 hours very tiring drive on very difficult roads I was really hoping we are going to find this lady and be able to park up by her shop. And yes, Sherry was there! Business as usual, just having to got back after her 3 hours (one way, on steep mountain roads) drive from the nearest town where she did her weekly shopping to stock up her shop with the beloved Coca-Cola, corn and wheat flour, fresh tomatoes, onion and lots of packs of cookies. She is in her early 60’s but I haven’t seen more energetic, more full of life little lady than her before. We ended up at her property (which was half km downhill from her shop and stayed there for 6 extraordinary days.)

Campsite at Sherry’sLa Bufa, Copper CanyonJuly 2013

Though John started having the same symptoms that I had a couple of weeks back. Just as he and Sherry were getting lost in a deep solar-panel, solar-controller and battery discussion. She was fascinated (and understood so much about it) by John’s knowledge, for Johnny’s biggest joy as he can talk about it for days. He loves the subject and wanted to help Sherry to improve her system (in her shop and her house). But due to his sudden illness he had to put hold on to the solar panel maintenance and was forced to stay in bed for 3-4 days.

As we were in a valley, it was hot and humid. But apart from the heat and the millions of blood-sucker creatures (one day john counted over 300 bites!! on his legs) it was actually a nice little place to be “stuck”. Poor John was so weak, he was just sleeping for days.
In the meantime Sherry and I packed up her tools in a backpack, climbed up (literally) the mountain to the waterfall, where she gets her water from, to see where the leak is and maintain the pipeline all the way. I asked her how many times a season/year she has to come up here (I can tell you, it’s not for the fainted hearted, we were climbing vertical walls, crawling through lethal thorny bushes and so on in the sizzling sun), she said usually twice a year. Gosh!After we repaired the several leaks and climbed back down, we then rebuilt her watering system in the garden (she’s got about 40 fruit trees, grapefruit, orange, lemon, avocado, mango and endless flowers and a veg patch) We built a base for and put-in a second water tank, re-piped the orchard and stuff. And this was only the first day! Man, this woman is unstoppable! She put me in shame with her strength and efficiency of lifting heavy stuff and so on.

She was also excellent fun, we connected immediately and after the job was done we picked a few melon-sized grapefruits and there came the Salty Dogs! (3 ice, vodka and freshly squeezed grapefruit) Man! Nothing better than that after some good workout. Then there was a tremendous amount of girly chats. I felt for Johnny being ill along with a guilty pleasure of having such a good time with my new girlfriend! As per for Johnny, if the bugs would have not knocked him out, the girly chats Sherry and I had would’ve done the job.

The following few days involved more pipe tweaking, one more trip to the waterfall (something happened so gotta go up to check it. This time I took a garden clipper with me and cleared the path all the way!) Then more watering, more itching from the exceedingly annoying blood-suckers and more Salty Dogs. As expected after the 3rd day Johnny was strong enough to get out of bed so he joined us in the evenings then he dived back in to the solar panel discussion with Sherry, and tweaked stuff to improve her system. (not just at her house but up in the shop as well)

Sherry is a small lady with a pretty face, she is sharp and youthful in her thinking, she has amazing stories and a brilliant sense of humour but above all she has a kind and generous heart. She shared her house and everything in it, her garden, her food and water with two strangers without question.

It was a match made in heaven and now she is sharing her friend Carol with us. Carol lives up in the mountains about 3 hours drive from La Bufa on the way to the town where Sherry does her weekly groceries for the shop. She had to come up too on the same day as John and I so we thought we could go together, meet Carol and stay there for a couple of nights -if we can.

So there we were. Meeting another wonderful lady who inspired us with her way of living life. Carol has a land (with perfect temperature and no bugs!!) with a gorgeous Alpine-style house that she built + a guest house, an amazing quirky veg and flower garden, sheep, chickens, hummingbirds and her 4 dogs.

Camping at Carol’s.Casa CarolinaCopper CanyonJuly 2013

Carol has a gentle quiet personality with a constant smile on her face and a twinkle in her eyes. One thing we noticed in common with Sherry was that Carol has this effortless generosity as well, sharing everything she has with me and John. We felt privileged to meet these two wonderful, brave hearted, feral cats who made our travels already worthwhile.

Carol and Sherry

We kept meaning leaving each morning and somehow, naturally we stayed one more night… Then the next morning we didn’t leave, again. And one more lovely dinner of roast lamb and wine with friends. And so much to talk about… However after can’t-remember-how-many days and dinners we felt it was time to say our goodbyes to the canyon and to our friends and a sunny morning we waved goodbye.

We were about to have a couple of long days drive ahead of us. We are heading to the area where are more colonial towns with history to tell, local heroes, legends and art. Looking forward to it and to our adventures yet to come.